An Uncontrollable "URGE"

URGE

                         With Three Massive Night Spectaculars and the 

Steamiest Beach Party on the Sands of South Beach

URGE Miami Festival returns this Thanksgiving weekend with three massive nighttime events and three sizzling daytime fetes including the Royal Palm Pool Party and the legendary Beach Party on the sands of South Beach.    Produced by Luis Morera, Billy Kemp and Hilton Wolman, the LGBTQ+ festival weekend will take place November 25-28 and will feature a list of the world’s most famous circuit DJs including Alex Lo, Dan Slater, Edu Quintas, Enrico Meloni, Jerac, Joe Gauthreaux, Marvin Ayy, Mauro Mozart, Paulo Fragoso, Suri and Tom Stephan, with more to be announced.

“After the massive success of last year’s Thanksgiving festival, we are excited to do it all over again, bigger and better than ever before,” says Hilton Wolman.

URGE Miami Festival kicks off Friday, November 25 at 10pm when Barcelona’s Matinee Group makes its triumphant return to Miami with Matinee Pervert XXL.  DJ’s Tom Stephan and Alex Lo will take over the decks at Miami's newest nightclub, M2 Nightclub, for their raunchiest production ever.  The historic nightclub (formerly known as Paragon/Glam Slam/Level/Mansion and Icon) has been transformed with $10 million in upgrades to structure, sound and lighting.  At 35,000 square feet, it will be the largest party ever thrown by URGE. Matinee Group is promising a level of production seldom seen before and they are flying in some of the hottest dancers from Spain and Europe to keep the dancefloor shaking into the wee morning hours.

At 2pm on Saturday is the Royal Palm South Beach pool party, presented by Eliad Cohen as part of the Papa World Tour.  DJs Dan Slater and Paulo Fragoso will raise the temps with their high energy beats, making extensive use of the incredible facilities offered by Royal Palm.  Expect plenty of wet and wild, splish and splashy fun and gorgeous men in skimpy bikinis.

The weekend’s Saturday night Main Event, URGE Warrior, will take place at one of Miami's premier film studios, home to some of the biggest blockbusters on HBO Max and Netflix, on their largest sound stage. DJs Suri and Mauro Mozart will battle it out with incredible beats in a spectacular production, sure to amaze. 

It leads to the signature event of the weekend:  the long-established Sunday Beach Party on the sands of South Beach. The sandblast begins at 2pm with DJ’s Enrico Meloni from Italy and Joe Gauthreaux from the USA dropping the beats on the largest stage and dancefloor and most colossal VIP deck this event has seen before. Kidd Madonny and his company, 3DX, are building the decor for the party and like last year, it will incorporate URGE Miami Festival’s yellow and white retro resort and cabana influenced theme.

“Circuit fans come from all over the world to experience one of America’s biggest LGBTQ beach parties,” Wolman explains.  “We will not disappoint.”

This year’s host hotel is the Royal Palm South Beach.  With 400 rooms, more than a quarter of which are suites, the Royal Palm is one of South Beach’s largest hotels, superbly located directly on the beach on Collins at the end of Ocean Drive. It offers a superior experience and will serve as the location of URGE Miami Festival’s Welcome Center and Saturday Pool Party.  It is also a short walk to a majority of the parties. Special $249 room rates are available while supplies last.

A portion of the proceeds from URGE Miami Festival will once again benefit Miami Beach Pride, a not-for-profit organization that works to unite members of the LGBTQ community by celebrating the unique spirit and culture of its people. 

Tickets for URGE Miami Festival are available now on the website.  GA and VIP tickets are available, as is the popular 24-hour pass that includes the Sunday Beach Party, Sunday night event and Monday morning Afterhours event. 

The Gun Club

THE GUN CLUB'S 1982 PUNK-BLUES CLASSIC "MIAMI" RETURNS WITH DELUXE DOUBLE-VINYL AND DOUBLE-CD REISSUES VIA BLIXA SOUNDS

Both the LP and CD editions come with a disc of previously unreleased demos.

Street date December 4, 2020

With a howling and unholy mix of punk rock and the blues, Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Gun Club exploded upon the L.A. club scene in the early '80s. They recorded their debut album, 1981's Fire of Love, for the local Slash/Ruby label. But when it came time to record a follow-up, the group decamped to New York to work with producer Chris Stein of Blondie and his new label, Animal. The results were 1982's stunning Miami, an album that didn't get its proper due back in the day. Blixa Sounds will right that wrong on December 4, 2020 with deluxe reissues of the album in double-CD and double-vinyl editions.

 

Both the double-CD and double-vinyl editions will contain a digitally remastered version of the original 12-track album, as well as demos of every track. In addition, the CD version will contain a second disc jam-packed with a total of 18 previously unreleased demos, including 6 tracks exclusive to the CD release.

 

The double-vinyl version will be released as a two-LP set packaged in a gatefold cover with extensive liner notes by drummer Terry James Graham and journalist Craig Rosen, as well as rare photos and ephemera. The CD version is a two-disc set, also with liner notes, photos and ephemera.

 

While their own hometown of Los Angeles was lukewarm to The Gun Club, others, including Blondie guitarist Chris Stein, took notice. He signed the band to his fledging Animal imprint, awarded to him by Chrysalis Records for Blondie's huge commercial success.

 

With the band relocated to New York, Stein produced Miami at Blank Tape Studios in June 1982, with Deborah Harry on hand to sing backup vocals, credited under the pseudonym D.H. Laurence Jr. In a sense, it was payback, because Pierce was more than a male groupie and West Coast head of the Blondie fan club. It was Jeffrey Lee who suggested that Blondie cover The Nerves' "Hanging on the Telephone," a highlight and British hit on the band's breakthrough album, 1978's Parallel Lines.

Despite the involvement of two members of Blondie, Miami was no pop-punk concoction, but rather a further exploration of the neo-swamp blues Pierce and company had mined on the acclaimed Fire of Love, though Stein's production made Pierce's toxic musical stew a little easier to swallow.

 

As was usually the case with The Gun Club, Miami found the band in a state of flux. Ritter split after recording the basic tracks. He's credited on the album below the band's then-current members, alongside Pierce's "additional piano" and Harry's pseudonym-credited backing vocals, and The Gun Club appears as a trio on in the cover photo, with Ritter missing in action.

 

"The band was really starting to split apart," Graham confirms in the documentary Ghost on the Highway: A Portrait of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Gun Club."It was going to Jeff's head… Chris Stein, his friend, is producing the record and somebody is telling him, 'You don't need your band, all you need is you.'"

 

Whatever the case, Miami is a classic, from the opening "Carry Home" to the closer "Mother Earth," which Billy Idol said was key influence on his 1982 hit "White Wedding." In a TV interview, Pierce said, "I didn't see how he saw it similar in his head, really. It didn't make any sense to me, but I said, 'Fine, I guess if it inspired you to make that music, it's good.'"

 

While The Gun Club went on to influence such artists as Chris Isaak, The White Stripes and Mark Lanegan, the band also highlighted their own influences on Miami. The album includes a howling take on Creedence Clearwater Revivals' "Run Through Jungle," a revved up version of the traditional folk song "John Hardy," and a Cramps-like rendition of J.R. Reynolds' "Fire of Love," the should-have-been title track of their first album.

 

Yet Pierce's originals hold their own against covers, beginning with "Carry Home," which opens the album with Pierce singing, "Come down to the willow garden with me / Come go with me," over Graham's steadfast beats and Dotson's guitar twang. From there, Pierce takes listeners on a wild ride, through the psychobilly stomp of "Like Calling Up Thunder," the anthem-like drama of "Brother and Sister," and the charging rockabilly of "Devil in the Woods," in which Pierce goes into a full yodel. Side one closes with "Texas Serenade," featuring Rubber Rodeo's Mark Tomeo adding some atmospheric steel guitar to counter Pierce's frantic vocals.

 

The albums continues with "Watermelon Man," with Pierce sharing writing credit with Dotson, Andy Warhol associate Walter Steding adding fiddle and Stein playing the bongos on some ghostly aural voodoo that'll haunt you to your core. "Bad Indian" charges through like a locomotive, while "Sleeping in Blood City" has Pierce ranting like a madman on his 19th nervous breakdown. It all comes to a tasteful end with Tomeo's steel guitar, Ritter's throbbing bass, Dotson's guitar accents and Pierce crooning us back to "Mother Earth."

 

This special two-CD version of Miami also includes a second disc, featuring demo versions of every track on the album, plus six previously unreleased demos of material that would later turn up on The Las Vegas Story ("Walking With the Beast," "Prune Dicks From Mars," "Vampires," "Journey to Zatar," "Blue Hair" and "Pig Boys").

 

Though some have criticized Miami, Stein is still proud of the album. "I have gotten flak from Gun Club members who played on Miami for not having a 'hard rock' enough approach to the production," he says in the book From Blondie: Parallel Lives by Dick Porter and Kris Needs. "I don't recall any of them voicing concerns at the time. Jeffrey and I spend a lot of time thinking about what the record should ultimately sound like. He really wanted to get away from a standard punk rock approach and reach into the world of so-called 'normal' music by making more references to country, et cetera. Jeff was the one who brought in a pedal steel guitar player. I know for sure he liked the record."

 

And Gun Club biographer Ryan Leach maintains the album is even stronger than Fire of Love. "I think Jeffrey's lyric writing had progressed in that year or so," Leach says in Ghost on the Highway: A Portrait of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Gun Club. "There are also a lot of harmonies on that record that Fire of Love never dreamed of."

  

Amazon Pre-Order Link: http://bit.ly/gcmm2020

Pang!

Hungry for something different?

501 (see three) ARTS and 24th STreet Theatre are thrilled to present the West Coast premiere of Pang! on Saturday, December 2 at 8:00pm and Sunday, December 3, 2017 at 3:00pm. Pang! – by Dan Froot and Company – is a triptych of adventurous live radio plays based on the oral histories of three American families hungering for change. The 90-minute production is being performed for theatre audiences in the three cities where the actual families live: Cedar Rapids, Iowa (10/20 & 10/21), Los Angeles, California at 24th STreet Theatre (12/2 & 12/3), and Miami, Florida (1/26 & 1/27/18). Pang! aims to raise awareness, decrease stigma, and promote cross-class dialogue around circumstances faced by families living below the poverty line. For more information on Pang!, please visit Tinyurl.com/pang-info.

Pang! Synopsis –

Pang! is an evening of three highly original theatre pieces about real American families facing poverty’s innumerable challenges – from hunger to gun violence to foreclosure to immigrant life – with love, humor and resilience. Staged as if recording a live radio broadcast or podcast, three actors at microphones voice dozens of characters, from 18-months to 77-years old, from a Burundian refugee speaking in his home language, to a 7-year-old Miami boy whose dialogue is spoken in unison by the entire ensemble. Pang! is a symphony of animated dialogue, musical accompaniment and live Foley sound effects, including doors slamming, dishes scraping, doorbells ringing, shovels digging, and rivers raging.

The plays are produced, written and directed by Dan Froot, in collaboration with the ensemble, with music by Robert Een, sound design by Cricket Myers, lighting design by Christopher Kuhl and are performed by actors Natalie Camunas, Donna Simone Johnson, Christopher Rivas, and Froot and Een. Pang!’s lighting director/production manager is Katelan Braymer, the sound engineer is Gary Markowitz, and the dramaturge is Bobby Gordon.

Los Angeles Tickets – 

There will be two Pang! performances in Los Angeles at 24th STreet Theatre (1117 West 24th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007): opening night is on Saturday, December 2 at 8:00pm and a matinee on Sunday, December 3, 2017 at 3:00pm follows. Ticket are $24 for adults; $15 for students, seniors and teachers; $10 for teens under 18; and $2.40 for University Park residents (with ID). For tickets, please visit http://bit.ly/PangTickets or call 213-745-6516. 

A Glimpse Behind the Scenes of Pang! –

Pang! is a response to our increasing socioeconomic disparity. Over the course of eight months in 2015-2016, Dan Froot and Company created six book-length oral histories of families living with food insecurity in Cedar Rapids, Los Angeles and Miami. They then collaborated with one of the families from each city to devise each of the 30-minute stories that comprise Pang!. The families consult with the Company continuously throughout the adaptation, rehearsal and performance processes. The families include:

From Cedar Rapids:

A family who makes a harrowing escape from war-torn Burundi and resettles as refugees in Eastern Iowa. The play is a fictionalized account of the making of a documentary podcast about the family’s story by a do-gooder producer. As he tries to bend the family’s narrative to serve his mission, cultural misunderstandings ensue. The family is, in the end, able to communicate a more nuanced understanding of immigrant life than the producer has ever imagined.

From Los Angeles:

We are introduced to Beatrice, her nine spirited children and her cantankerous elderly uncle, Gregorio, as she takes us on a tour of the beautiful two-story house her grandmother purchased 65 years prior. We witness heartwarming vignettes from the family’s history: uproarious backyard barbecues, chaotic school mornings, teenage sisters fighting over the house’s only phone. We learn that the uncle has been trying desperately to modify the home’s second mortgage. Enter Rex Salonga, a convivial mortgage adjuster. Through a tragicomic kaleidoscope of phone messages and home visits, Rex befriends Gregorio and convinces him to allow Rex to “help” him modify his loan. Spoiler alert: the foreclosure crisis is not over.

From Miami:

A seven-year-old boy sews seeds of hope by fantasizing his family's way out of a Miami neighborhood besieged by violence and beset by racism. The play is written from the child’s point of view, as audiences are taken on a wild ride that merges super-hero fantasies with car crashes, the tooth fairy, and the loss of a dear family friend.

Even though the plays deal with sobering realities, they are rich with the humor, warmth and resilience of the families themselves.

Just Because...J-Lo & A-Rod

J-Lo & A-Rod Sitting In A Tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G...

Just Because it's Monday, just because it's hot everywhere and I feel like making it hotter & just because they're both so pretty I present to you this image of sizzling couple Jennifer Lopez & Alex Rodriguez.

This is one of those pairings that publicists dream about. Both are rich, photogenic and hot, hot, hot! Not to mention buzz worthy. You never know a PR lackey may have actually got them together in the first darn place.

Look they even dress to the nines for a simple evening of dining out while in Miami, Florida. One of my least favorite cities in the United States for the record. 

OK back to the subjects at hand. When was the last time a celebrity couple seemed so equal to one another in every little way I ask you?

Answer me, I'm waiting....

Jennifer on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/jlo/?hl=en  

Deja Vu

From The Cher Playbook
Nicki Minaj

OK, Cher fans tell me what you see when you glance at this photo of Nicki Minaj shooting a video in Miami? If you thought Holy Shades of Cher I completely understand and relate as I did too!

Yes Darling Nicki there are those of us out there who recognize this look is a copy of one that the Goddess Cher donned back in her Sonny & Cher days. So that means we are basically old, and don't win any sort of prize other than the privilege to be smug.

Oddly no one has pointed this fact out with the blurbs that accompany this image on the WWW. My guess is either they are too young to know, or perhaps they do know and decided to let old people like myself have a smug time.

Whatever the case Cher wore it best and it shows Nicki has good taste in the inspiration department. 

Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves indeed!

Nicki on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/nickiminaj/?hl=en  

"We Belong Together" KC and the Sunshine Band

Butterflies + Happiness = KC and the Sunshine Band

KC and The Sunshine Band premiered the audio of their new single, “We Belong Together,” on PerezHilton.com. The song is the latest in an iconic four decade career that has promoted love, unity and happiness through music. Penned by Harry Wayne "KC" Casey, “We Belong Together” captured what the Grammy Award winner was feeling when he first heard the track.

“I remember, I had just met someone, and it was right at that beginning stage when just the sound of their name gives you butterflies,” said KC. “It was around the time my namesake Casey Nayman, who is a DJ and the son of my close friend Larry, brought me this track and ‘We Belong Together’ was born. It came from that feeling of just wanting to be with someone, and knowing you belong with this person.”

Listen to the audio premiere here.

Harry Wayne "KC" Casey
Photo: David Vance

After over 40 years, 100 million albums sold, nine GRAMMY nominations, three GRAMMY Awards, thousands of concerts and countless pairs of Boogie Shoes, multi-platinum selling, Miami-born dance group KC and The Sunshine Band continue to play hundreds of live shows annually. Fans can sing and dance along to mega hits "Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake Your Booty," "Get Down Tonight," "That's The Way I Like It,” "Boogie Shoes" and more, as well as new songs like “We Belong Together” at KC and The Sunshine Band shows around the world. Full schedule below. 

KC and The Sunshine Band on Tour:
JUL 30 SOLBERG AIRPORT 39 WHITEHOUSE STATION, NJ
JUL 31 RIDGEFIELD PLAYHOUSE RIDGEFIELD, CT
AUG 04 SYCUAN CASINO EL CAJON, CA
AUG 05 SYCUAN CASINO EL CAJON, CA
AUG 13 MILL RACE PARK COLUMBUS, IN
AUG 14 MARTHA CLARA VINEYARDS RIVERHEAD, NY
AUG 23 CENTRAL STATES FAIR RAPID CITY, SD
AUG 27 TROPICANA SHOWROOM ATLANTIC CITY, NJ
SEP 01 THE BOMB FACTORY DALLAS, TX
SEP 16 FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
OCT 09 PALACE THEATRE GREENSBURG, PA
NOV 17 WOODBINE CONCERT HALL ETOBICOKE, CANADA

heykcsb.com.